White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made the
bizarre claim on Tuesday that unlike Syrian President Bashar
Assad, Adolf Hitler never stooped to the level of using chemical
weapons.

The claim was immediately rebuffed on Twitter, where many users
erupted in outrage.

When asked whether Spicer thought there was any reason to think
Russia would pull back its support of Syria, its decades-long
ally, Spicer seemed to muddle some facts regarding World War II
history.

"We didn't use chemical weapons in World War II," he said. "You
had someone as despicable as Hitler didn't even sink to using
chemical weapons. If you're Russia, you have to ask yourself if
this is a country and regime that you want to align yourself
with."

But the World War II-era German dictator famously did use
chemical weapons in gas chambers to exterminate millions of
Jewish people, LGBTQ people, and others in Eastern Europe.

Moments later, Spicer was asked to clarify his comments on
Hitler. "When it comes to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on
his own people the same way that Assad is doing," Spicer said.

"In the way that Assad used them where he went into towns and
dropped him down on innocents in the middle of town was not the
same. I appreciate the clarification — that was not the intent,"
Spicer said, presumably referring to the implication that Hitler
did not use chemical weapons.

In his clarification, Spicer also referred to Hitler bringing
people into "Holocaust Centers," apparently referring to gas
chambers.

"Sean Spicer" and "Holocaust Centers" were trending on Twitter
following the press conference. Here are some of the reactions:

Hitler "was not using the gas on his own people," says Sean Spicer, writing German Jews out of history.

After the conference, Spicer offered additional clarification,
telling an NBC reporter, “In no way was I trying to lessen the
horrendous nature of the Holocaust, however, I was trying to draw
a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical
weapons on innocent people.”